Sangh Parivar never opposed reservations, says Mohan Bhagwat

Bhagwat said the Sangh thinks that the reservations should be extended as long as they were needed.

Hyderabad: Amid the ongoing war of words between the Congress and the BJP over reservations, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday clarified that the Sangh Parivar never opposed reservations for certain groups and that it had been in support of reservations “since the beginning”.

Speaking at a programme at an educational institution in the city, Bhagwat said the Sangh thinks that the reservations should be extended as long as they were needed. “A video is being circulated that RSS is against reservation and we cannot speak about this outside. Now this is completely false. The Sangh has been supporting all reservations as per the Constitution since the beginning,”he clarified.

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The RSS chief’s remarks come in the backdrop of a war of words between the BJP and Congress over reservations. Last year in Nagpur, Bhagwat had said that reservations should continue as long as there is discrimination in society.

During election rallies in Araria and Munger Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar on April 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accused the opposition of attempting to “steal” reservations meant for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), and Scheduled Tribes (STs) for the benefit of their preferred vote bank of Muslims. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh countered Modi’s assertions, saying that it was the BJP, not the Congress, that opposed reservation for SCs, STs, and OBCs.